RANKED: The 18 companies most likely to get self-driving cars on the road first

2016 was a big year for self-driving cars.

Alphabet's self-driving car unit officially became its own independent company, Waymo. Tesla says its cars now come with hardware that will support full autonomy when the regulatory environment allows it. That doesn't even mention the various startups, like AutoX, now vying for a foothold in the space.

Navigant Research assessed all the self-driving-car players and has released its leadership grid showing who is most poised to bring Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 self-driving cars to market in the next decade. Navigant first released its leadership grid in the third-quarter of 2015, but says in its report that the "landscape for automated driving has advanced significantly" since then.

(For reference, Level 2 and 3 autonomous systems refers to vehicles that can handle some complex driving tasks, but still primarily relies on a driver. Level 4 autonomy refers to cars that can drive themselves without any human intervention, but only in certain geographic regions. You can get a better breakdown here.)

Companies on the the Leadership Grid were assessed on 10 criteria: vision; go-to market strategy; partners; production strategy; technology; product capability; sales, marketing & distribution; product quality and reliability; product portfolio; staying power. The companies were then given an overall score out of 100 based on their performance in each category.

Scores were boosted for those who have announced Level 2 autonomy plans for 2017 or 2018 as well as for companies that have publicly demonstrated Level 4 autonomy.

Scroll down to see the 18 companies slated to get their autonomous systems to market first, ranked: